REV On Air: Solving the World's Plastic Pollution Problem With Innovation in Fashion with Javier Goyeneche of Ecoalf

Javier is the founder and president of ECOALF, an ethical fashion brand that was born in 2009 with a vision to stop carelessly using natural resources. Javier’s mission was to create the first generation of recycled products with the same quality and design as the best non-recycled products on the market. Having spent a decade as a successful entrepreneur with his first brand, Javier gradually grew frustrated with the amount of waste he saw being produced by the fashion industry. He embarked on a mission to create an entirely new concept that would combine his design sensibility and understanding of the fashion consumer with the latest in recycled materials. He has grown the company to be a leader in the space of truly sustainable enterprise…looking at everything from carbon footprints, waste management and what the positive impact of doing business can look like. Ecoalf is now recognized by B Corp as one of the global top 5% of companies that are best for the World, and his commitments to education and solution based work keeps expanding. The Ecoalf Foundation is one of the elements of the company I find so interesting and a huge part of what we discuss today as something other businesses should really be trying to do themselves. The History of the ECOALF Foundation is the story of Upcycling the Oceans, an unprecedented global adventure born in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015. The aim is to clean the oceans of marine waste with the help of the fishing industry and to give a second life to plastic waste through recycling and closing the loop. Currently, the ECOALF Foundation collaborates with local partners to carry out Upcycling the Oceans in Spain, Greece, Italy and Thailand  though they are working on its implementation in other parts of the world as pollution is sadly so rampant throughout all of our oceans. They also collaborate on other projects in the fields of waste management, environmental awareness or research and development with institutions with whom they share common values and objectives. Since 2015, the foundation has collected 1000 tonnes of marine waste, proving that we really can have solutions within an economic system. Javier’s passion for what he does is just infectious….his ability to work with everyone from local fishermen to understand how to engage with waste collection to collaborations with Goop and Barneys is indicative of someone who realizes that every person needs to be involved in saving the planet. Because, as his company slogan states, there is no planet B. Learn more about Ecoalf here! https://www.instagram.com/ecoalf/